The invention relates to an image recording apparatus comprising a plurality of lenses, provided with one separate shutter each, the lenses being arranged for selective positioning in the optical path, a television monitor with its fluorescent screen arranged to project images to be recorded via the optical path, a film supply- and a film collector-magazine, and a transport device for conveyance of individual film sheets from the film supply magazine into an exposure position in the optical path, and from the exposure position into the film collector magazine.
Image recording apparatus are employed in order to transfer onto a film, via a television display unit, image data present in data memories, such as are e.g. employed in computer tomography or in the case of ultrasonic apparatus, for the purpose of documentation and/or for examination purposes. However, it is also possible with ultrasonic apparatus to retain discrete processes on a film via a television link during the course of an ultrasonic examination. Particularly in the case of active (or in-motion) processes, this has the advantage that the individual phases of movement can be studied at leisure.
To this end an image recording apparatus is already known in which the fluorescent screen image of a television monitor can be light-projected onto a film. In the case of this prior-known apparatus, in order to retain a sequential record in a correct fashion (suitable for filing), of an exposure series occurring, in particular, in the case of longer examinations, several series-arranged sets of lenses can be respectively inserted in the path of rays between the fluorescent screen of the television monitor and the film plane. A separate shutter is associated with each of these lenses. In the case of this installation, depending upon the type of inserted lens arrangement, either an individual, correspondingly enlarged, or several, correspondingly reduced, photographic exposures of the fluorescent screen of the television monitor can be light-projected adjacent one another onto a large-format standardized film sheet which is also suitable for filing. For this purpose, the selected lens group must on the average be adjusted over a relatively extensive linear path. The various stages of an examination sequence can, in this fashion, be preserved adjacent one another and can also be mutually compared at leisure. However, it is a peculiarity of this prior-known image recording apparatus that erroneous exposures can come about on account of the complicated operation. This can lead to the loss of the information which was to be stored photographically in some cases. Since the arrangements capable of insertion in this apparatus are equipped with four or six, or even nine, sets of lenses, and since they accordingly form an image of the television image on the entire, a fourth, or a ninth of the surface of the film sheet, these sets of lenses also have different focal lengths. This, in turn, has as a consequence that their distance from the television monitor and the distance of the television monitor relative to the film plane is to be correspondingly differently adjusted depending upon the inserted lens group. A mistake in the location of the insertion plane alone can lead to unsharp images which are not suitable for medical use. In addition, the adjustment of the different lens groups is quite time-consuming. Therefore, in continuous examinations this image recording apparatus can be employed only restrictedly.